Pat, I think this is alright. Remember among the Indian community, we used to have arranged marriages where the boy and girl met for the 1st time prior to engagement. If they liked it (or sometimes no choice), they have to get hitched for the greater good of the families.

Anyway, something similar used to occur among the Al Arqam. Young girls who graduated with a Masters degree or a PhD were asked by the main man himself to become wife# 2 or #3 of one of his many followers. Read the history of Al Arqam.

IIUM Islamic territoryIn Malaysia of multi-racial peopleHas Talibanism entered the hall of learning?Wagging its tail all must turn a blind eye?

Allah is fair and compassionateWhere do they learn it from?The World is Allah's childrenThere is no discrimination

Some more “No dating”The minds of peopleThe modern gadgets flowOut of date isn't it?They can do itThrough webcams

God is watchingChildren antics and participationsGod needs to record our actionsWhen we return our report cardsTelling no lies......God is compassionate and forgivingThere are chances we may scrap through

I always wonder how a certain race in Bolehland can get married without even have dating.

Then one day I go to the cinema and I found out the answers - a lot of thing can happen in the darkness of cinema. You get surround effect of some groaning from behind, and it is not the dolby/dts systems I am talking about.

have it occurs to them that Malaysia is not an Islamic country but a multi-racial country with Islam as the main religion as stated by our previous Prime Minister when we just got our independence? Why are we going backwards instead of forward? another narrow minded bunch of extremist..there are a group of students planning on something even funnier and ridiculous..check out my blog entry for it

Then the muslims will get married without dating, then after married only found out that their spouses got body odour coz they never sit near before married, then they cannot stand it and want a divorce, then the Terengganu gov think that spice up sex life can solve it...

Does that mean that us non-Muslims are not allowed into the IIUM compound? You are right, Allah certainly is watching you and He's shaking His head and said "This is certainly not what I've wanted my believers to be. You've all used my name in vain!"This world was created with everybody in mind and not for Muslims alone.All of us have our own cause to be here and the world belongs to no specific race or religion.

Dr Asri is not educated enough to give a lecture on religious matters. He is not qualified based on Selangor Religious Authority (JAIS) standard. Therefore he was arrested. A former Mufti in one state is not good enough to be allowed to speak about religion in another state in Malaysia. This is 1-Malaysia, a country where Islamic standards are different from one state to the other.

it is not so much about the dating.. it is believed to be one way of preventing social problems later i.e sex without marriage.. and etc.. though it shows that the authorities there are really weak in educating the students.. and they don't and ca't trust the students.. perhaps they should increase more campaigns and activities on the issue...let the students organise it themselves.. no dating does not mean u cannot be a friend to the other gender.. but it will be in a much controlled situation..

What has proven to be so controversial about Islam has been the syariah laws. Are these man-made laws, or God's laws. I am asking this is because the various Islamic state countries have different syariah laws, and different punishments for breaking such laws. And punishments are also meted out when the Koran does not even provide punishments for such "crimes".

I repeat, the sad state of perceiption of Islam is because the leaders of the religion,(Mullahs, ayatollahs, Imam's, Mufti's) have been interpreting the scriptures according to their own thoughts. And this goes, too, to other religions, e.g. christianity, where the divisions is due to the preachers who impress upon their congregation/followers their own interpretation, and hence a division/movement was formed. Even quite recently, a Korean preacher,(Moon) formed another division called Moon Christianity(moonism), and apparently has garnered a large following.

But what is sad in Malaysia is that UMNO has gone all out to make sure that no Malays leave Islam at all costs. This way, UMNO can have total control of the Malays. Hence, any preacher who preaches Islam not in accordance with the official version of Islam is deemed as a deviationist. Only UMNO's Islam is allowed, and UMNO's Islam is the correct version of the interpretation of the Koran.

Thus UMNO also uses Islam to control the Malays, besides language and culture.

Some time back, Ayah Pin was termed a deviationist. Why call him a deviationist when he did not claim that he was preaching Islam? He was only preaching his scriptures(his own or so-called scriptures of God). So obviously, he wasn't deviating from anything. The truth of the matter is that UMNO doesn't want him to influence the Malays, for fear of them leaving Islam and not because he was deviating from Islam.

You see, UMNO is also using Islam to control the Malays, as stated earlier.

It boggles my mind that Bolehland promotes religion (at the expense of mostly kafir's tax payments). People of mainly one religion dominate the civil service and political leadership. They pray or seem to be praying five times a day and at least every Friday (cars parked as they like with no regards for fellow citizens...).

Yet our beloved country

a) has among the highest rate of corruption in this regionb) we have a openly practised corruption system where projects are for "sale" to the highest bidder under the table.c) we have a government that oppresses freedom of speech, freedom of media and freedom of peaceful assembly

How come this university, funded by tax payer's money can claim to be some "exclusive" territory? Is it not under civil laws just like any other part of Malaysia?

Some bigot at IIUM must be standing for some election I guess and needs this to fool some people to vote for him.

And hello, no one is insulting any religion. What we are saying is you cannot wake up one morning and claim a territory in the name of your religion.

Unless we learn to separate politics and religion, we will become another failed state like Pakistan or Afghanistan.

When the ruling bigots finally decide enuf is enuf "let us hang the Patrick bugger!" I predict they will charge you with insulting THE religion and/or with sedition. And blog comments like you see here will be presented as evidence.

Lock you up and throw away the key. Be careful mate, we need you to keep us rolling on the floor.

the banner itself says no dating, not "no sex before marriage". This is not a misunderstanding as we know many preach the fact that there should be no dating among muslims.

Besides, will you be surprised if sex before marriage is also HARAM in other faiths, most notably Christianity and Judaism? I really do not know if you will be surprised... Both religions also preach prevention and in fact strict prevention, just like Islam.

Now I know why the standard of Malaysia's universities is so low: it's because the students are busying themselves watching over other students to make sure they are not dating or committing khalwat instead of studying.

Well, these unemployable student graduates can eventually qualify to join Rela or other Islamic religious bodies (JAIS, MAIS, JAKIM, etc) as religious policemen since they have had so much practice of snooping on people's private lives during their Uni days.

I studied and am now working at the university. Please bear in mind the university has to live up to its 'Islamic' name. Hence, students and staff are expected to behave accordingly. Ask any Muslim scholars from the most conversative to the most liberal, they will tell you there are certain limitations to male-female interaction.

The no dating rule is certainly not a barrier to marriage. IIUM has a sizeable number of undergraduate students who got married during their studies there. The university encourages students to get married if they feel they've found someone they like rather than continue dating for months and years.

If there are any Christian institutions who impose any similar restrictions or code of behaviour on their students, I certainly wouldn't say a word against it. It's their right to do so. Similarly, I would expect others to respect the International Islamic University's right to impose what it believes to be right.

The subaltern voices in Islam are clashing with each other. Examples abound. The Sufis are saying that the Wahabbis are on the wrong path, the Wahabbis claim they are preaching the one and true tauhid and that Sufism is a strange invention, the Shiahs in Iran are probably building more powerful weapons against the Sunnis the Mid-east over, the Malaysian government is propagating Hadhari and the halal hub in a haram casino-capitalistic environment, the Malays have produced their own messiahs or Rasul Melayu (Malay prophets) and their variants of Ayah Pins and their Sky Kingdoms, the anti-hadiths are roaming cyberspace declaring themselves Quranic-only Muslims, the liberal Muslims are at loggerheads with the strict ones bent on moral policing, the gangsta-rapper-Busta Rhymes-type Muslims are angry with the soft-spoken Raihan-acapella-type- Muslims, the Sisters in Islam are angry with the Malaysian Brotherhood of Islam or the Ikhwanul Muslims, the Death Metallists are having a field day with all these chaos amongst Muslim ideologues, the Catholics are fighting in court over the issue of the "Allah" ban, the whirling dervishes are still whirling.... it is a postmodern situation in the field of Islam in Malaysia.

From a distance we are instrumentsmarching in a common band.Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace.They're the songs of every man.God is watching us. God is watching us.God is watching us from a distance.

From a distance you look like my friend,even though we are at war.From a distance I just cannot comprehendwhat all this fighting is for.

From a distance there is harmony,and it echoes through the land.And it's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves,it's the heart of every man.

It's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves.This is the song of every man.And God is watching us, God is watching us,God is watching us from a distance.Oh, God is watching us, God is watching.God is watching us from a distance.

Most of people here just love to comment. What are you doing for your country?What are you doing for the next generation ?Blame someone who just want to try put in very little effort to help the the next generation become the best generation. At least he try to do something that he think can change society mentality or whatever. Even you are not agreed with his way.Even if it is not suitable or not not acceptable for some party, actually it is not big deal man !Just wasting time to comment others opinion, then eventually will angry with someone else, then will keep fighting commenting on the same issue. After all most of you do nothing for the future generation. What the hack, left behind minded most of you. No unite at all !The proper way, you just give some advice, and tel that this is ur opinion about the banner, and this... and this. Thats all ! Everyday people go to work to get money..Then go home to spend some time with family.If he tension, or on holiday or weekday, he will find some entertainment, hangout anyway with friends, enter the night club. And most of you repeat the same thing for the whole of your life !!!

What is it then that underpins the actions of the Islamic state authorities and the BN government? It's that dizzying, addictive substance called power. More potent than alcohol, power is what is motivating the Islamic state authorities to insist on caning Kartika and the government on detaining people without trial. For the Islamic authorities in Pahang and other states with similar syariah punishments for personal sins such as alcohol consumption, it's about having the power to force Muslims to live and act according to a particular definition of Islam. For the federal government, it's about having the power to silence dissent.

NIAMAH!! To YOU Patrick. Oh! and HATE your acting too. You're not funny, you're acting stinks and everytime you appear in a Movie ppl will hold their breath waiting for the next scene without you appearing again.

Well might as well try blogging. Oh! did that too. Make it more sensational. BE Racist and intolerant to Islam. Then deny you did so, cause you meant something else! Now you're being a comedian.

Pat,I dont think you understand the reason behind the bunting.It's not about thinking backwards or primitive or anything..

The only thing that you are doing with your posting is opening an opportunity for some "dumb stereotype non-Muslim" to look down on what Muslim beliefs.It's also a sad thing if Muslim also condemn the point of the bunting.

There's a purpose for that banner and its a good reminder for muslim to behave properly.